NFL and NFLPA agree to injured reserve changes in COVID-19 response, per report

Word is beginning to trickle out concerning some of the plans being put in place for football in the time of a pandemic.

Pro Football Talk is reporting the NFL and NFLPA have agreed to an injured reserve-esque system for players who test positive for COVID-19. Under the agreement, players who test positive will be placed on a reserve list for three weeks, during which their spot on the roster can be filled by another player. During their time on the reserve list, players will be paid their full salary.

Per PFT, the agreement isn’t entirely clear as to what happens if a player isn’t able to return to action after their three weeks on the COVID list passes, but teams will have three weeks to evaluate a player after his time is up. At that point he’d have to be placed on the active roster, be released, or be moved to injured reserve permanently.

This is a small piece in an extremely large and complicated puzzle, but it’s hard not to see any kind of agreement as a step in the right direction. Though it’ll take a lot more of these kinds of steps to get to a season this fall, the league and its players have to start somewhere. Today, they seem to have done just that.